NBA showcase puts Western Heights on the map

WESTERN Heights College has announced itself as one of the country’s rising basketball programs after reaching the semi-finals of the NBA Rising Stars Invitational Australia Qualifiers in Melbourne last weekend.

The Geelong school was one of eight invited to compete in the boys tournament through its specialist sports program, with the winner earning a place at the NBA Rising Stars Invitational Finals in Singapore.

Western Heights finished the tournament with a strong 3-2 record before falling to eventual champions Berwick College in the semi-final, capping an impressive campaign against some of the nation’s leading school programs.

 

 

Specialist sports program leader Renee Lane said the opportunity to compete in an NBA-run event broadcast nationally on ESPN was invaluable for the students.

“It’s an incredible opportunity for our student athletes to participate in such a high-quality competition,” she said. “It’s great exposure, a great competition…and it’s really taking their basketball to the next level.

“For us as a proud state-school in Geelong, it really is putting us on the national map.

“We really value the whole learning environment. It’s not only what happens on court, but effort, attitude, behaviour, work habits and attendance are all central to students’ performance.”

Head coach David Herbert said he was particularly proud of how the group competed given Western Heights had one of the youngest squads in the tournament.

“We took a very young team away. We only had two year 12s and had two year 9s in our starting five. We were the youngest team there by far,” he said.

 

 

“I was really proud of the way the kids actually handled it and performed. We certainly weren’t out of it at any point and had shots dropped the right way.

“It was a great experience and the good thing is that there’s a plethora of kids sitting in our program right now that will hopefully get that opportunity again next year.”

Herbert said the tournament aligned with the sports program’s long-term focus on player development rather than results alone.

“We pride ourselves with the kids here that we’re really focused on individual development, not a much winning tournaments,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do is send our players back with better skills, better knowledge, better tactical information so they go back and play for the likes of Geelong United and Surfcoast and Bellarine as better players.

“To throw that together as a team and compete the way that we did, against the physicality, was an eye-opener.”

Having only launched in 2020, Herbert said the school’s rapid rise showed the strength of the developing program.

Western Heights will now turn its attention to tournaments including the Champions Cup, Victorian Schools Championships and the National Championships later this year.